1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sheet handling device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sheet handling devices which are configured to handle sheets such as banknotes and checks are widely employed as automatic teller machines and the like by financial institutions. Such a sheet handling device have an internal transport path for transporting sheets. However, due to soiling or tearing of sheets being handled or to the design of the transport path, the problem of jamming of sheets within the device sometimes arises, necessitating shutting down operation of the device. According to one known technology addressed to this problem, when a sheet becomes jammed, the jammed sheet is diverted onto an alternate path so as to minimize the need to shut down operation of the device.
However, in most instances a sheet jam inside a device will occur when sheets are stacked in a input/output hopper etc., and thus while the technology mentioned above is effective in determining and eliminating sheet jams occurring on the transport path, a weakness is that it not capable of dealing with instances of sheet jams due to stacking of sheets in the input/output hopper subsequent to transfer to the input/output hopper.